A Professor’s Experience: Open Access Week

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By Kristy Padrón, MLIS Scholarly Communication Services Librarian

October 25 – 31, 2021 is International Open Access Week.  Open Access (OA) is a publishing model promoting free and unrestricted access to various types of scholarly works.

Ortiz Headshot

Stephanie Ortiz, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the FAU Department of Sociology.  Her article, Trolling as a collective form of harassment: An inductive study of how online users understand trolling, was published in Social Media + Society in June 2020 as an Open Access (OA) article, where readers can view the article freely and without a subscription or a paywall.  Dr. Ortiz answered some questions about using OA to publish her article.

Q:  What do you believe are the benefits of publishing in open access?
A:  Your work is likely to reach a larger audience more quickly. It can be shared on social media and accessed by journalists who find your research relevant but who would have otherwise not known about it. A wider audience also creates opportunities for collaboration, or at the very least more recognition of your work.

Q:  Did your journal require an author processing charge (APC)? If so, how was it paid? ​
A:  Yes, it did require a fee. The editor waived the charge because I am a junior scholar.

Q:  What is a challenge of publishing in open access?
A:  A challenge would be the APC. I also imagine some disciplines or departments might be skeptical of open access journals if the impact factor is lower than traditional journals.

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Last modified at 10/26/2021 - 12:08 PM